gssq.blogspot.com Archives - 10 January 2012, Tuesday

Happiness is freedom to choose for herself "Ms Lee Wei Fen, 24, recent graduate 'I don't think money has to get in the way of happiness. Unfortunately, it often does because it confuses people about their priorities in life.' How she found happiness: While others her age headed straig...

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception." - Groucho Marx *** The truest passage in the book: "The real value of a sexually attractive woman in a world which regards good looks as a commodity depends on the degree to which she puts her looks to work f...

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right." - Isaac Asimov *** "Dancing with the octopus at Anilao" Last week, some people were expressing disgust that Nikon Asia had endorsed this picture as a "truly astounding shot" (the photo has since been taken down): W...

The World's Favourite Past Time "Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think." - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary *** On complaining about the young: Who says young people are lazy and rude? "TOO rude, too lazy and too wasteful. Adults worldwide routinely complain about ero...

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative." - Oscar Wilde *** Greg Mankiw's Blog: Educating Oligarchs - "Paul is making an implicit assumption--that the return to education is deterministic. If indeed a year of schooling guaranteed you precisely a 10 percent increase in ear...

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra *** ""We've behaved badly, boss. You laughed, so did I, and she saw us. And the way you left, without any fine words, as if she was an old bag of a hundred. What a damn shame! It's not polite, boss. That's not the way for a ...

Comment: "The issue really has to do with changes in the declension of regular and irregular English verbs over time. Old Anglo-Saxon words commonly were strong and therefore would change their past tense forms. (“To run” becoming “ran” is an easy example.) French influence helped bri...

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Driver thought cyclist she hit was tree branch - "HER car rammed into a cyclist from the rear so hard that he flew and hit the front windscreen, cracking part of it, before rolling onto the road. But Cleopatra Wong Yuin Ping, 30, thought the body that smashed into the windscreen was a...

“Rather than seeing himself as human because he could make economic calculations, the hunter insisted that being truly human meant refusing to make such calculations, refusing to measure or remember who had given what to whom, for the precise reason that doing so would inevitably crea...

"Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless." - Sinclair Lewis *** Comments (mostly from the first 2 pages, anyway) on a Guardian op-ed exuding British post-imperial guilt: 1) I couldn't even read ...

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Saw this at Ben and Jerry's Chunk Fest 2011, and was struck by the thought that some people (who would otherwise support Ben and Jerry's goals) would disagree with all four definitions of Fairness here: "Fairness is being judged by your inside not your outside" - the moment you slam s...

"Indecision may or may not be my problem." - Jimmy Buffett *** Voices of finance: banker's ex-girlfriend "I remember the first time on a Sunday morning he told me he'd have to go into the office. I was appalled. Then I thought, wait, this is his way of telling me it's over. Turned out...

"I find nothing more depressing than optimism." - Paul Fussell *** "[Jan] Hus's passionate demands for a return to the traditional poverty of the clergy and a general improvement in the moral standards of public life aroused the enmity of the upper echelons of the priesthood as well a...

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"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein, (attributed) *** While watching the Lion King at Marina Bay Sands, I noticed that most of the cast members (whose ethnicity I could discern) were black. Scar seemed to be Indian, one hyena was probably a...

"All phone calls are obscene." - Karen Elizabeth Gordon *** u r wt u wr : - 'I did it with a girl and I liked it -lipstick kiss mark-' (Approximate phrasing) - 'Take one more glance' (Presumably because she had relatively much to glance at in the region) - 'TRÈS CHIC' (this should hav...

"Barnum was wrong - it's more like every 30 seconds." - Unknown *** Meet The Old Lady Behind The Sounds In Porno Flicks! Islamic Sharia Law Court Opens in Belgium - "The Sharia court is the initiative of a radical Muslim group called Sharia4Belgium. Leaders of the group say the purpos...

Socialisation in China in 1931 "Stories of Animals That Talk Disliked in Hunan ""Alice in Wonderland" will in future be a banned book as far as school children in the Province of Hunan are concerned. General Ho Chien, the Governor of the Province, has issued an official order prohibit...

Observations - 30th September 2011 "Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word 'safe' that I wasn't previously aware of." - Douglas Adams *** Perhaps the prevalence of curses insulting mothers but not those for fathers is due to paternity uncertainty! I and Lynn Chan would l...

"In order to preserve your self-respect, it is sometimes necessary to lie and cheat." - Robert Byrne *** It's sad that even scienceblogs.com has feminist nonsense: You May Be A Mansplainer If... : Thus Spake Zuska (among other things - what does this have to do with science?) A short ...

"The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work." - Richard Bach *** Bayer Healthcare released a study to mark World Contraception Day. While people are excited about Singaporeans thinking Coke is a good contraceptive , I decided to read the original report. Choice bit...

"We Americans live in a nation where the medical-care system is second to none in the world, unless you count maybe 25 or 30 little scuzzball countries like Scotland that we could vaporize in seconds if we felt like it." - Dave Barry *** How sexists find love - "Women who are charmed ...